All You Need To Know About The Great American Eclipse 2017

2 min

It is only hours to the Great American Eclipse . This event will be the first in 38 years, the last one happened in February 26, 1979. It will go from the coast to the coast. it will happen on Monday 21st of August 2017.

The Great American Eclipse 2017

So are you prepared for this? If you are not here is a widget that will give you the whole information you need about the total solar eclipse.

What is total solar eclipse Time?

The solar eclipse is a lineup of the sun, the moon and the earth. The moon comes in-between the sun and the earth, this casts a shadow on our planet, if you in the dark part of the shadow you will see the total eclipse while if you in the light part you will see partial eclipse.

Solar eclipse happens at new moon but not in every new moon. The totalities of the eclipse are different lengths because the earth is not always at the same distance from the sun, so as the moon.

All people of the US will see at least a partial eclipse. Totality lasts 2 minutes and 40 seconds. If you want to see it you can go to Giant City State Park in Illinois, and go early.

Old civilizations feared the eclipse

People back then feared eclipses. In china they think it is a dragon. In Hindu tradition they thought it is a demon. While Chippewa Indians throw fire arrows towards the sky, for reigniting the sun again.

In modern age, with the entrance of technology and development of science people changed their way of thinking. They experience such event and are emotionally effected.

Solar eclipse is a human experience

We can say about this astronomical event, that it is the greatest human experience ever, it shows you how small you are to this universe.

Protect your retina

Eye doctors warns people from viewing without preparing. They are advising people to protect their retina while watching. We all know that watching an eclipse or staring at the sun in general is not good and could damage your eyes.

A group of ophthalmologists explain how sunlight can damage the retina and give people the right viewing techniques of this event. These doctors point out that lots of people think it is safe to view the sun during total eclipse.

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Actually this true for people who are in the path of the total eclipse, however for most people, there will be at least some portion of the sun’s core will be visible.

So if you in the path of the total eclipse you can stare at it without protection but before the moon starts to slide aside put your protection back in place.

How sunlight damages the eye?

When you expose your eyes to the sunlight, it causes solar retinitis which involves two types of damage to the retina, particularly to the fovea. Burns and photochemical toxicity.

The photo-chemical toxicity is what we are concerned about the most! Because when a large wallop of visible light from the sun gets soaked up by photo-active materials in the eye, they are just eager to form radicals and reactive oxygen species.

These chemicals like heme proteins, melanosomes, lipofuscin and other chemicals.

Once these are generated it attacks the molecules in the eye and breakdown the membranes causing tissue damages and cell death.

Once retina tissue is damaged it cannot regenerate again.

How we avoid such damage?

What not to do: avoid viewing the eclipse with your naked eye or unfiltered telescopes, sunglasses, binoculars, camera lenses or other optical devices.

don’t use anything that focuses the light, the solar rays could damage the filter and enter your eyes.

What to do: For safety use pinhole projectors, Aluminized Mylar filters/ commercial glasses

If you suspect that your ryes have been damaged by sunlight go see an eye doctor who will be able to find out after testing using OCT.